I did it! 52 weeks of photos!  here were times I didn’t want to get off the couch on Sunday afternoon to take the shot… but I did it!  I’m really proud of my little collection of my year in photos.  It’s definitely a project I recommend, as sometimes you have to think out a concept to shoot.

I don’t think I’ll be doing it this next year, but don’t fret, you’ll still see my kids. :) I’m tossing around the idea of the project “5 Burns 12 Times” a family photo a month… but I’m sure Nate would kill me.

Phew! THANKS for coming along on this journey with me!

This Christmas was a very hard Christmas for me.  I lost my beloved grandmother on the 21st, and her funeral was on Christmas Eve.  Granny was one of my most favorite people in this entire world.  You may remember that Week 28 was dedicated to them.  So, in the midst of my grief and tears, we tried our best to have Christmas… albeit a couple days late b/c of our traveling.  Thankfully the kids are too little to realize it was late.

So this Holiday Week… grab your loved ones, and hug them extra tight.

This past week, the Burns house got hit, and got hit hard. It was the nasty, nasty flu. It started two fridays ago, when Seth’s school called and asked that I come pick him up. Within the next 48 hours, we were all falling like logs with high fevers. I peaked at 102.5* myself. Audrey was the last to get sick, and she also held on to her fever the longest, poor Bitty. She peaked at 103.6*, which scared me, so off to the Dr we went. Audrey ended up being our Dr’s first diagnosed case of Flu this season. Yippee. Everyone is finally on the mend, though we are all stil sleeping a lot, and appetites are small. The image below is Lucas sleeping…. he has crazy eyelashes!

In photography, bokeh (pronounced BO-kuh) is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.”  It’s what lends a 3D affect to photos, when your subject is crisp and clear in front of a blurred background.  Now we haven’t seen Lucas lately in the 52 Week Project, so I thought I’d snap a quick one of him in front of the tree.  I shot this photo at an f/1.4.

I adore my red and white lights!

Every first weekend in December… the hunt is on. The Great Tree Hunt at our local tree farm. Can’t be too fat, nor too tall.  This year’s tree still turned out a bit fatter than we like in our tiny living room, but it makes for a cozy space.

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday for as long as I can remember. I just love that sense of anticipation and all of the magic in the air.  I love playing Santa and teaching my children about Christ’s Birthday, and the redemptive story behind it.  I love how it gets neighbors out chatting to each other more, and festive parties to get prettied up for.  ’Tis the Season of joy and LOVE.

One year ago I shot some of my favorite images of Audrey… her in her little pink tutu.  A year later, I wanted a couple more tutu and pearl shots, especially with my awesome new background.  I “puffy heart” this set up SO much!

Don’t you just LOVE those headbands and hair pieces?!?!  I can never get enough of them.  They are Banner Boutique, and you can find their HUGE selection HERE ON ETSY.  You may just see a sweet someone who graces their pages of high quality stuff.

Now, let’s chat for a second.  I have roughly 860 Facebook Fans on My Photography Facebook Page.  I’m just dying to have 1000 fans!  To help you encourage your local friends to fan my page, I’ve come up with a Contest Giveaway, to sweeten the deal!

The Winner of this Giveaway will receive… drumroll please…

$100 Gift Certificate from Andrea Burns Photography.  Good towards a sitting or products.

$50 Gift Certificate to Banner Boutique’s store.  For whatever little pretty thing catches your eye.

$25 Gift Certificate to Lisa Leonard’s Jewelry store.  For a pretty around your neck, or even your Christmas Tree.

That’s a pretty darn good giveaway for just spreading the word about Andrea Burns Photography!  Now, how can you enter the giveaway?  On the Facebook page there is a “Suggest Page To Friends” link on the left side.  I’d really perfer you only suggest the page to local friends and family, and by local I mean within an hour’s radius of Washington DC (it doesn’t do me too much good if your grandma’s neighbor in Texas is a fan  ;) .    Once you’ve suggested the page to your friends, you can come and comment on THIS BLOG POST.

Once I get those 1000 fans, I’ll take a drawing for the lucky winner!

Happy day!  Go Forth and Suggest!

A snaggletoothed-boy in this house, just lost his third tooth… and my-oh-my is it funny to hear his light lisp, and man-oh-man, does it make him look endearingly goofy and OLD.

I rejoice, because I am done.

Sunday, October 31, I ran my first full marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon.

The Friday before I picked up my race-packet and proceeded to carb load.  All week long I’d think about the race and get a belly full of nerves.  The night before I slept terribly… it was like Christmas Eve, and I tend to sleep terribly the night before anything big or exciting.  I woke up at 5 am to eat my oatmeal and coffee, and hop on the Metro.

I underestimated the long metro ride, and the fact that they had the start line a mile away from where we got out.  It was 7:45 by the time I got there, and I had to wait in a long porta potty line, and missed the start.  This meant I was not lined up in the runners equivalent to my pace.

There was a sea of slow runners and walkers to work through for the first several miles. I was pushing out 9 minute miles the first several miles, so that meant I already knew that I was not going to be qualifying for Boston today.   It was like a fartlek: run slow behind a group then speed up the moment a window opens.  I spent a lot of valuable energy dodging and weaving through people going slower than me.

Mile 13 found me wondering if I was even going to clear 4 hours (my ultimate goal) and waiting in a long line of women to use the bathroom.  Surprisingly, I was battling a severe case of nerves for the first 18 miles.  It would just rise and billow, and I couldn’t seem to control my nerves.  I think that my expectations of an awesome race were so high, and I’d dreamt of this moment for 18 months… I just couldn’t shake them.

Finally at mile 18, I came up on my family… Nate, my mom, and the 3 kids had come to cheer and support me.

moments before I had just run into an old friend, and we both smiled as we ran past.

My smile is hiding that my hips were hurting, I had a pulled groin muscle, and my ankles and arches were feeling really sore.  I had already been to the orthopedist about my hips, and it turns out my hips are pointier than normal and rub on my ITBand.

Then I approached 20 miles.  Physically, I was in a lot of pain.  Psychologically I was thinking, “I will Never Do this again.”  I couldn’t fathom that I still had 6 miles to go… another hour of feeling like one long labor contraction.

The last 2 miles I was basically moving at a shuffle.  I did stop to walk a few times, and starting to run again was always excruciating… Mile 25 I was walking when a man ran past and yelled, “you can do it!  Finish strong!”  and that was all I needed.  I ran the last bit.. and the MCM is cruel that they have one final last steep hill going UP into the finish.  The MCM motto is “Earned, Never Given.” and they mean it.

My Garmin time was 4:19:57.  My official chip time was 4:29:19.

Things I’ve learned:

Get there EARLY and line up aggressively.

Don’t stop to use the bathroom.

Don’t cheat on your training.  (I skipped or shortened a few runs.)

Cross train… get other muscles involved.

Get a GPS Garmin, the foot pod ones are worthless.

Race MORE races… toe the line a few times so that my nerves aren’t out of control.

Will I do a full marathon again?  Up until late Monday night, the answer was No Way Jose.  That. Was. Brutal.  The last couple days?  I’m disappointed I didn’t get my sub-four hours I worked hard for, and should have had.  I wonder if I changed my things learned list, and maybe sought out a smaller, less crowded marathon I could get that time I desperately wanted.

Overall, I’m a little disappointed over my time.  I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.  But I’m incredibly proud of my accomplishment, and now only have something I can improve on and build on.  I do think that ultimately half-marathons are more my distance.

Happy Halloween from the Burns’ to you!